GREEN BAY, Wis. - The NFL is a cruel sport.
That's not exactly breaking news. When coaches and players say the injury rate is 100 percent, it's because the injury rate is 100 percent.
For the Green Bay Packers , the start of this season has gotten off to a cruel start. All along, the big question is whether the Packers would be able to survive the first four or five games without Micah Parsons . Stay afloat to start the season, get one of the game's ultimate closers back on the field, and the sky would be the limit for a team that was 9-3-1 before Parsons was hurt last year.
The Football Gods, of course, had other plans.
Receiver Jayden Reed , the team's explosive slot receiver and resident "juice guy," in the words of coach Matt LaFleur, is out following a neck injury sustained on the second play of Sunday's win over the Jets.
Right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele, the team's best offensive lineman, is out for the rest of the season after tearing the patellar tendon in his right knee on the third play against the Jets.
"We talk about it all the time - it's always just the mindset of it's got to be that next-play, next-man-up mentality," quarterback Jordan Love said on Tuesday. "Obviously, it's a lot easier said than done when you've got your brother that's laying on the field injured and you don't know what's going on.
"It's the NFL. We've played football our whole lives. Stuff happens. You hate to see it but, obviously the game goes on, so I think it's just taking that second as an individual to regroup, refocus and try to put all your attention back on the field."
The "next man up" is the harsh reality of the NFL. Those backups-turned-starters are on the roster and collecting paychecks for a reason. The train keeps rolling. However, while injuries aren't an excuse, they are a reason. A backup is a backup for a reason. He's not good enough to be a starter.
Sometimes, the next man up just needs an opportunity. Most times, though, the next man up means a step down in performance.
If you're doing a pure man-for-man substitution, Skyy Moore is the next man up behind Reed. This is Moore's fifth season in the NFL. A second-round pick in 2022 (No. 54 overall), he has 50 career receptions and one touchdown. Reed, a second-round pick in 2023 (No. 50 overall) had 64 receptions as a rookie and 55 in 2024 with 15 career touchdowns.
Moore is an excellent returner, but to expect him to pick up the slack on offense and provide a lot of support for Green Bay 's only two proven receivers would be foolish.
The Packers, of course, won't just swap in Moore and call it good. Tight end Jonnu Smith , who has played a lot in the slot in his career, should get more chances. Christian Watson has been a big-play threat from the slot, as well.
"We put a lot on his plate," LaFleur said of Reed. "So, certainly, not having him available, I think we saw some of the effects of that last season when he came back, and just the complexity it can put into our offense. So, that's something that we just have to adjust to. I do feel confident that we have some guys capable of fulfilling a lot of the things that he did."
Anthony Belton will replace Bako-Bewele at right tackle. He was a second-round pick last year, so at least he's not some career backup being thrust into an opportunity for which he has no chance to succeed.
It was rough going for him last week against the Jets with three pressures allowed and two holding penalties, though that's sort of the way it goes for most young players when thrown into the fire at a moment's notice.
Belton now can - finally - hone in one position. A left tackle in college, the Packers had him work at the tackle positions during his rookie training camp before tossing him in at right guard at midseason last year.
This year, Belton opened training camp as the No. 1 right guard but lost the job to Jacob Monk .
"I thought he did a nice job" against the Jets, offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. "Obviously, we kept him over there [at right tackle]. I didn't want to say that we knew this would happen, but just in case and, unfortunately, it did happen, and he stepped in and did a nice job. Expecting him to just anchor down the right side and do a great job."
He had better be at least good. Last year, of the 26 individual edge players with at least 50 pressures, exactly half rushed mostly from the left side of the defense or against the right tackle. Another four were between 45 and 50 percent. As we've noted frequently over the years, long gone are the days when the best pass rusher attacked only from the blind side.
For the Packers, this is a real pressure point.
Their offense has been one of the worst in the NFL through two games. Third down, a huge strength last year, has been an overwhelming weakness this year . Along with being last in the league on third down, they are last in the NFL in rushing and last in completion percentage.
Otherwise, it's a well-oiled machine.
The Packers got a taste of life without Reed and Bako-Bewele, obviously, on Sunday. They didn't beat the Jets on Sunday so much as the Jets beat themselves. In a 20-17 victory that required 65 minutes, they gained 199 yards, averaged 4.0 yards per play and converted 1-of-9 on third down. With possessions that started at their 46, the Jets' 19 and midfield, they gained zero first downs.
There simply aren't any obvious answers for a team with no running game (and no Josh Jacobs for the foreseeable future), a porous offensive line (and no Bako-Bewele) and a less-is-more receiver core (which is less without Reed).
Toward the end of a Tuesday news conference that wasn't filled with a lot of optimism, LaFleur was asked if there were any building blocks on offense that the team can lean into on Thursday.
If there were any, LaFleur neglected to mention them.
"It's Week 2, and I'm not going to make light of it," he replied. "Certainly, we're getting everything corrected, and there's some things that we have to do schematically, as well. But I'm not going to overreact to it, either. So, bottom line is you've got to find ways to win football games in this league, and we were fortunate to be able to do that on Sunday, and we're looking to go do it again."
The offense will get better because Jordan Love is a good quarterback and Matt LaFleur has a history of directing strong offenses, but the idea of the Packers rounding into a top-10 unit capable of beating good defenses and competing for a championship seems almost out of reach.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/packers/onsi as Confidence Meter: Packers Will Survive Latest Injuries, Starting vs. Falcons .
